PyrusMalus | Deliver

Main Graphic: Browse, search and view digital resources of the performing arts… website developed by PyrusMalus

The PADS - Performing Arts Data Service - collects, documents, preserves, and promotes the use of digital resources to support research and teaching across the broad field of the performing arts: music, film, broadcast arts, theatre, and dance.

Its target audience is performing arts researchers, teachers, and students in UK Higher Education. The PADS collects digital materials to create an online resource base for research, teaching and learning, and preserves those materials for future use.

PyrusMalus collaborated with PADS to design, develop, and deliver a new website which would integrate various collections, providing an opportunity for these collections to be searched in an interoperable environment for the first time.

Some of the newer collections within the PADS website contain large numbers of images, audio and video clips, and even virtual reality models.

The guided tour below demonstrates browsing through the Designing Shakespeare Multimedia Archive, an AHRB funded project developed by Dr Christie Carson at Royal Holloway University of London. This collection includes over 4000 images, sound files, video clips, and virtual reality models relating the the design of Shakespeare in performance in the UK since 1960.

Step 1 of 8
The PADS Splash screen.

Step 2 of 8
The main menu divides the collections into music resources; film, television and broadcast resources; theatre resources; dance resources; and general arts resources.

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Each area can contain multiple collections that the guest can browse or search through.

Step 4 of 8
The Designing Shakespeare collection has been chosen, and information about the collection is presented.

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The Collection is organized by plays.

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The play "As You Like It" has been chosen, and various performances of that play are displayed.

Step 7 of 8
A performance of "As You Like It" by the Royal Shakespeare Company has been chosen, and images from that performance are shown, along with information including the cast list.

Step 8 of 8
One of the images has been chosen, and is displayed along with copyright information.

Guided tour: click the miniature screenshot icons above to see pages from the PADS website.

One of the interesting challenges was to ensure that the different collection databases could be integrated into one system, which would provide the functionality for browsing and searching.

The website was developed using WebObjects, with the collections stored in OpenBase, which proved more than able to handle the large amount of data that was needed.

If you're interested in finding out more about the technologies used in the development, the following links should be useful…

PADS Website

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